California state hospital worker is slain on the job

[alp227]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from San Francisco

A 54-year-old psychiatric technician was killed Saturday at Napa State Hospital, allegedly by a patient, marking the first staff homicide in the state's mental hospital system in two decades, officials say.

The body of Donna Gross of Concord was found at 6:10 p.m. on the fenced grounds behind the unit where she worked, sources said. Gross, who had worked at the hospital for 13 years, was described by staff members and one patient Sunday as kind and dedicated to her patients, many of whom were sent to the facility after committing crimes as a result of their mental illnesses.

Jess Willard Massey, 37, who has an "extensive criminal history," was being held on suspicion of murder and robbery, a Napa County Sheriff's Department statement said. He has been in the state hospital system since being declared "not guilty by reason of insanity" in 1997 in another case.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-psych-death-20101025,0,3603247.story

[WhiteTara]

1. RIP Donna

you were an unsung hero.

[AzNick]

2. They closed psychiatric wards and that's what happens

All over the country hospital staff are in danger of being assaulted or even killed by mental patients who have nowhere to go but the hospital, where the personnel is unprepared.

Irony or ironies, these hospitals have to hire rent-a-cops or even real cops to filter the visitors, especially at night, and protect the hospital staff.

Which of course comes at a cost.

And what is the cost of an innocent life anyway? Especially a trained hospital worker? I can't quantify it.

[EFerrari]

3. Napa is a long term care facility. n/t